Miao-Yao

[ myou-you ]

noun

1. a family of languages, affiliated with Kam-Tai, spoken in southern China and Southeast Asia.

Example Sentences

But the language families closest to Austronesian are thought to be Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic, and Miao-Yao.

From Literature

Miao-Yao speakers live in dozens of small enclaves, all surrounded by speakers of other language families and scattered over an area of half a million square miles, extending from South China to Thailand.

From Literature

Naturally, Miao-Yao speakers did not acquire their current fragmented distribution as a result of ancient helicopter flights that dropped them here and there over the Asian landscape.

From Literature

Instead, one might guess that they once had a more nearly continuous distribution, which became fragmented as speakers of other language families expanded or induced Miao-Yao speakers to abandon their tongues.

From Literature

Since Miao-Yao languages barely survived into the present, we might also guess that South China once harbored still other language families besides Miao-Yao, Austroasiatic, and Tai-Kadai, but that those other families left no modern surviving languages.

From Literature